Henry Slayton stood quietly under gray rain clouds looking down at the grave of one of his many friends in the Chattanooga National Cemetery.
It was the last of 50 graves he’d bought flowers for, to place on their tombstones.
It’s something the 1966 Howard School graduate has done to mark every Memorial Day and Veterans Day since 2007.
When he calls the roll, it gets longer every year.
Slayton got the job mostly done on Tuesday this year. On Wednesday, he was still having trouble finding neighborhood friend Freddy Jones’ grave. Jones’ death was recent, 2018, and he’s been buried in the cemetery’s newer section. It’s hard sometimes for Slayton to find his friends easily.